Why May Day matters to Botswana: radical roots, today's struggles

When we celebrate May Day we rarely reflect on why it is a public holiday in Botswana or elsewhere. Sian Byrne, Paliani Chinguwo, Warren Mcgregor and Lucien van der Walt tell of the powerful struggles that lie behind its existence, and the organisations that created it and kept its meaning alive, including its roots in the radical working class struggles.

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WHY MAY DAY MATTERS TO BOTSWANA

Sian Byrne, Paliani Chinguwo, Warren Mcgregor and Lucien van der Walt
Mmegi, volume 30, number 65, (Botswana), pp. 8-9, 3 May 2013

May Day, international workers day, started as a global general strike commemorating five anarchist labour organisers executed in 1887 in the USA. Mounting the scaffold, August Spies declared:'If you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labour movement - the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery - the wage slaves - expect salvation - if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.'

Anarchist* roots
May Day's roots in the revolutionary workers' movement are often forgotten. It arose from the anarchist movement - anarchism is often misunderstood. Anarchists like Spies wanted society to be run by the ordinary workers and farmers, not capitalists or state officials. In place of the masses being ruled and exploited from above, society and workplaces should be run through people's councils and assemblies, based on participatory democracy and self-management.
Anarchism was a global mass movement from the 1870s, including in the USA. Its stress on struggle from below for a radically democratic socialist society appealed to the oppressed in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas.

The 1880s USA looked like China today: massive factories, poverty, slums, and the oppressed working class under the boots of the powerful, wealthy elite. Anarchist workers fought back. They were central to the US-wide general strike of May 1, 1886, involving 300,000 workers. Unions demanded the eight-hour working day, and justice for the masses.

Storm centre
Chicago was the storm centre: the third largest US city, where the elite flaunted its wealth in the face of poor American and immigrant workers. Chicago saw the largest May 1, demonstrations, against the backdrop of terrible working conditions and poverty, worsened by economic depression.

The power of the Chicago movement rested not just on numbers, but also on revolutionary ideas. It was the anarchist International Working People's Association (IWPA) that led the massive march of 80,000 people through Chicago, growing during the following days to 100,000.IWPA leadership included black women like ex-slave Lucy Parsons, immigrant workers like Spies, and Americans like Oscar Neebe and Albert Parsons.

Its Pittsburgh Proclamation called for 'the destruction of class rule through energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action' and 'equal rights for all without distinction of sex or race.' Internationalist in outlook, the IWPA and the Chicago-based anarchist Central Labour Union (CLU) it led, fought for all working and poor people, regardless of race or nationality. It published 14 newspapers, organised armed self-defence and mass movements, and created a rich tapestry of revolutionary counter-culture like music.

Anarchists rejected elections in favour of mass organising and education. Elections, the IWPA said, achieved nothing much: the state was part of the system of elite rule; politicians were corrupted into the ruling elite. Instead, most IWPA activists stressed unions as the basis for genuine workers' and farmers' democracy: unions should undertake factory occupations, leading to an anarchist (free) society.

Haymarket Martyrs
On May 3, Chicago strikers fought with scabs; police killed two strikers; the IWPA called a mass protest against police brutality at Haymarket Square. Here, an unknown person threw a bomb at police, who then shot dead many workers.The Chicago elite used the clash to crackdown on anarchists. After a blatantly biased trial, eight anarchists were convicted of murder, falsely blamed against all evidence for the bombing.

Spies, Albert Parsons, George Engel and Adolph Fischer were hanged in 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide instead. Samuel Fielden, Neebe and Michael Schwab got life sentences.Rebuilding, anarchists and other socialists formed the Socialist International in 1889. This proclaimed May Day as Workers Day, a global general strike to commemorate the Haymarket Martyrs, fight for eight-hours, and build global workers unity.

So May Day began as an example of globalisation-from-below. And it continues to be a rallying point for workers everywhere, facing social and economic injustices 120 years on.

Struggles in Botswana
Batswana migrant workers have a long history of involvement in May Day struggles in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. This is not surprising: until the 1970s, most waged workers worked outside Botswana.The achievement of May Day inside Botswana would take far longer. Independence in 1966 opened a period of stable parliamentary rule, but it did not solve widespread local poverty and inequality.

A teachers' association was formed in 1937, and the first proper union, the Francistown African Employees Union was founded in 1948. The 1960s saw the formation of the Bechuanaland Trade Union Congress in 1962, and the rival Bechuanaland Federation of Labour in 1965. But unions remained weak into the 1970s. Workplaces were small; the agricultural sector remained huge; trade union legislation also created obstacles to unions operating, while banning political and sympathy strikes.

A new Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) was formed in 1977, but there were only eight registered unions, with less than 6,000 members combined, a year later.However, the working class in Botswana was growing rapidly, especially on mines and in the state sector. The number employed locally for wages rose from 10,000 in 1960, to 60,000 in 1978 - topping the 40,000 Botswana workers in South Africa.

In 1975, Botswana was shaken by a strike of unprecedented scale and violence at the Selebi-Pikwe copper-nickel mine, opening a new chapter of class struggle. The paramilitary Police Mobile Unit was used; workers were fired and then selectively rehired.But the first campaign for a May Day followed the strike. Initiated by the opposition Botswana National Front (BNF), it involved demonstrations.

May Day 1978 saw workers demonstrate in Gaborone, with banners supporting May Day, and criticising government. That evening saw a commemoration at the Botswana Trade Union Education Centre, formed in 1971. A petition was prepared, calling for an industrial court, a Ministry of Labour to deal with labour issues, and a reduction in wage differentials.

In 1979, the BFTU held a May Day event, where it hosted Public Service and Information Minister, Daniel Kwelagobe, as guest. He was presented with a memorandum, including demands for May Day to be an official holiday and for changes in the bargaining system. However, none of these initiatives were successful.

Escalating struggles
The 1980s saw the unions take a tougher stand, as relations with the state worsened. They opposed new laws enabling employers to prosecute union actions, enabling easy dismissals, and giving the Minister of Home Affairs extensive powers to intervene in unions - especially around politics.

Meanwhile, May Day celebrations continued to be held, although the day was not recognized by the state. In 1989, the government Manual Workers' Union (MWU) used the May Day events to criticize plans for privatisation.

In 1995, the MWU congress demanded that May Day be recognised, and that Botswana ratify all the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. Also present at this congress were unions from Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - a sign of the growing power of unions in the region. In the late 1990s, the ILO listed unions in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe as among the fastest growing in the world.

Today, tomorrow
Finally, in 1996, May Day was proclaimed as a public holiday in Botswana. However, many problems remain. May Day has subsequently been used to fan the flames of discontent. In 2001, for instance, the MWU reiterated the demand that ILO standards be adopted. Wages remain low, causing strikes in the mines and unrest in the state sector. The economy is growing rapidly, but inequality is high. In agriculture, land and cattle are often centralised in the hands of a few, pushing more people into wage labour. Privatisation plans remain in place. And as in the SADC region more generally, the 8-hour day is still not a reality.

Conclusion: May Day today
The Haymarket Tragedy remains a symbol of countless struggles against capitalism, the state and oppression. Freedoms won in recent times rest on the sacrifices of martyrs like the IWPA anarchists, and on Botswana's workers in 1948, 1975 and in subsequent years.

May Day is a symbol of the unshakeable power of working class solidarity, and of remembrance for martyrs. It can serve as a rallying point for new anti-capitalist, participatory-democratic left resistance.We need to defend and extend the legacy of the Haymarket affair, and to build the working class as a power-from-below for social change.

AUTHORS [in 2013]: Sian Byrne works for the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi), South Africa. Warren Mcgregor is an activist, postgraduate and part-time lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Lucien Van Der Walt lectures at Rhodes University, South Africa; Paliani Chinguwo is a researcher at Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council.

* For an in-depth analysis of anarchism's roots and global history: Schmidt, M. & van der Walt, L. (2009). Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism. AK Press: San Francisco.